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Freedom of the Seas - May 22-29, 2011

Sail Date:
May 2011

Destination:
Eastern Caribbean

Embarkation:
Port Canaveral

Our cruise vacation was great right from the start. We arrived at Pt. Canaveral at about 11 a.m. and almost immediately they announced that we could enter the terminal - the check in process went quick and they directed us to a waiting section - very organized. Upon boarding we made our way to the Windjammer for the lunch buffet, after lunch we made our way to our cabin. Our cabin was on deck 6 and overlooked the promenade, it was remarkably quiet, except when there was a parade or music extravaganza going on.

Coco Cay was a nice relaxing day, alot more hammocks and chairs than I remember from 5 years ago. St. Thomas nice, should have taken an island tour though, we walked around the town looking at the shops, basically like any other port town with the same stuff, jewelry, booze, etc. :)

Next we went to St. Martin, I had booked an island tour with Bernard's Tours and it was great! We were lucky to get to ride in the large blue and white bus - plenty of room, A/C, More
drinks and the driver was entertaining although a little on the quiet side. There were others who had to ride in smaller vans and they seemed a little cramped. Got to see a lot of the island and enjoyed every minute of it.

The Arcadia theater is beautiful and the shows were very nice - they seem to favor music shows though A LOT. The RCCL singers, dancers and musicians are excellent but it would have been nice to to have more variety.

The absolute best show on board was the Ice Show, get up early though and get tickets when they come available Tuesday morning - they are free and they go fast. You can try and get a seat at the door but it is better to just get a ticket at Guest Services counter on deck 5.

The dining was great - you can pretty much get the same food in the Windjammer as you can in the dining room, except on Friday night when there is lobster, but you will definitely over-eat :) and miss out on a wonderful dining experience. We met the nicest people at our table and that really made the trip more special.

As far as activities go there is something for everyone. There was more things to do than we had time or energy for.

Disembarkment on Sunday was a little delayed due to a conveyor belt problem but we still made it off the ship and through customs in under an hour.

We will definitly be cruising with RCCL again and highly recommend the Freedom of the Seas. Less

Port and Shore Excursions

Everything seemed run down, the only thing that seemed alive was Senor Froggys.

Did the Snorkling Catamaran cruise to view a reef, haha. It was along the coast - no reef and only a couple fish. All the booze you could drink on the boat though so most people were happy, hung out on a beach for a while and then back to the dock.

Don't book through the ship though. It was $100 per person if you book on board, we went off the ship and over to the ticket dock for the commuter service from Tortola to Virgin Gorda and paid $25 per person round trip. The boat that went to the cruise ship was a dinky little thing. The regular commuter boat is a high speed Catamaran, we left the excursion boat in our dust and were on the beach a while before the cruise excursion finally showed up.

We left Virgin Gorda at the same time coming back and had a shower and were standing on the railing before the cruise excursion folks made it back.